Category: 365 Days of Bento

Today for my second day of bento lunches I made a rice and nori patty, cabbage spring rolls, cute little cheese sammies, green peppers and laughing cow swiss cheese, some bunny-ear apples, and a bit of a cereal bar! I had a lot of fun with the spring rolls even though it took me a bit to figure out how to wrap them! I can’t wait to make more complex ones next time!

I’ve decided to begin a new project as something to entertain both you and I, and that is the 365 Days of Bento Project, where I will be eating a bento box (what’s in it, not the plastic box!) I make for lunch every day for a year!

*cue horns and confetti*

Bento is a Japanese-style packed lunch, typically decorated either all cutesy and fun or very simple and minimalistic and full of yummy things like rice, nori, and veggies. They typically look something like this:

Or this:

Little Pixies, you may not know this about me, but when it comes to cooking and constructing crafts I’m a bit of a bumbling idiot. I thought that perhaps forcing myself to make one bento every day for a year would really help get my creative juices flowing as well as help me become more adequate in the kitchen! Plus, hey, it seems fun!

What could go wrong?!

The rules I’m setting down for myself are as follows:

Every day there shall be bento eaten.

For every day that bento cannot be eaten, one more day shall be added to the project so that the amount of bentos totals 365.

God bless.

I hope you all enjoy this project as much as I almost certainly will!

Bento: Day 1

I haven’t ever made a bento before, and I know very little about the process itself. I didn’t have any of the necessary equipment, so I went out to the most logical place I could think of: Five Below.

I got a cute little Cool Gear lunchbox:

And a very basic Pop Chef kit. I figure as I participate in this project longer I’ll pick up more and more accessories to make my bento lunches even cooler!

I tried to freehand a cute bento from what I had around, and this is what I ended up with:

I made a little face out of jasmine rice and nori, and used my pop chef kit on a little vegan ham to make teensy little ham circles to decorate the other half of my rice. It looks a little silly, but it certainly was delicious!

I also used my pop chef kit to make little pita shapes to go with some laughing cow cheese. I think that might have been a little too “American” for traditional bento, but it worked well for my beginner lunch!

The last couple of things I added were some sugar snap peas and brussel sprouts.

All in all, the lunch was filling and delicious, especially since it was so small! I’m excited to make tomorrow’s.